Monthly Archives: October 2003

I’ve really missed Austin!

I’ve now been in Austin for three days, and every one has been fantastic. The first night I got here, a bunch of my old friends met me at a new bar, and then we went out country dancing. I can’t even tell you when we got home..I was just very glad I didn’t have...

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Ahh..Venice!

Venice is a beautiful city, and I can’t wait to come back! Unfortunately I wasn’t really able to spend much time here at all. I took an overnight train from Florence and got in around 8:00 am. The night before I’d checked with the hostel association, and found that all the hostels...

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Pisa and Lucca

I decided to take a day trip out of Florence to see the leaning tower of Pisa and the walled town of Lucca. The Italian train system is usually extremely efficient and it makes taking these type of quick trips a pleasure. However, I didn’t realize that every so often the workers tend...

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Tuscany

The Tuscan region is fantastic. I’d heard that one of the things that you had to do was to take a bike ride around the area, so I hooked up with a local biking company. I was the only backpacker, which was kind of interesting. Two of the people on the trip were...

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Florence

Getting here took longer than I thought it would…I missed the train by about 3 minutes, and had to wait for the next one. That one ended up being about an hour late, so I finally arrived in Florence about 3.5 hours later than I had expected. Luckily I found a GREAT hostel, and had...

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Rome and Pompei

I had forgotten how expensive Europe is! Luckily, I am only spending a few days here…I can’t believe I’ll be home in 9 more days.
After a long flight from Cape Town via London I arrived in Rome around 4ish. It took a while to find a room and it was getting dark by...

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The end of Africa

Today we arrived in Cape Town, and marked the official end of our tour. It’s been a good 52 days, but I’m looking forward to getting to Italy, and then back home. My 30th birthday was a few days ago, and it couldn’t have been better. We toured 4 different wineries, and ended up going...

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Namibia

Today is our last day in Swakopmund, Namibia. It’s a cool little German style town right on the beach. There is a current coming straight from Antarctica, so it’s water about 17 degrees. Too cold for swimming, but great for offshore fishing. 5 of us went out this morning, and spent the day angling for...

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Etosha National Park

Etosha is one of the biggest and best parks in Southern Africa. It’s main highlight is a huge salt pan that was formed thousands of years ago when the river feeding this area changed course. Now it’s a dry desolate place that is still home to an astonishing variety of wildlife. One...

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